Stealing the Future
by Tie-dyed Trickster
Summary: Turns out Kakarrot wasn't the only baby Bardock took from the nursery fifteen years ago, and that that day was far busier than previously suspected... Part 19 of the Geta!verse.


_Disclaimer: You know how I keep saying this is an AU? I really, really, REALLY mean the alternate part._

 _Set a few months prior to 'Found.'_

 **OoOoOoOoOoO**

He was running down the palace corridors. It wasn't a hard run, but his breath was coming in gasps, fear stealing his ability to breathe smoothly. It was a mistake- it had to be. The king couldn't seriously- Not his boy, not the last thing he had left of his mate-

So focussed was he on his goal, he didn't even notice the arm that snaked out of a side passage until it had him by the armor and had yanked him in. Immediately he began to struggle, snarling and thrashing – he had to get loose, his son, _Cauli's_ son-

The arm holding him from his task pulled back and slammed him into the wall hard enough to stun him. "Shut _up_ , Paragus! Or do you want us to get caught?!"

Blinking, he stared into the face of his attacker. " _Bardock_?! What are you doing, and when did you get so strong?" then he shook his head. Never mind- you have to let me go- the king, my _son_ -"

"Is going to wake up if you don't _shut up_!"

"Wh-what?"

Stunned into momentary silence, he stood quietly as Bardock released his hold on him and adjusted his stance so Paragus could see the bundle he held in his left arm. It whimpered softly, then settled. Paragus moved to take it, but Bardock stepped back, angling himself once again so that his body was between Paragus and his son.

"Paragus, listen to me. I can help you – you and your son both – but there's not much time. Come on." Glancing over his shoulder, Bardock darted further down the passage, leaving Paragus the choice to either attack the lower class warrior or follow him.

But it was no choice. A blast would have brought the palace guards running and, worse, might have hurt his son. He dashed after Bardock, quickly catching up. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because we're going to need your boy in the coming fight." Reaching a fork, he slipped down the left branch. "I'd been hoping we'd have more time, but the king's not recovering from the loss of the crown prince, and Frieza's getting suspicious. He's heading for Vegetasei right now, and I don't think he's interested in talking it out."

"What makes you so sure?" It was no secret that Frieza wasn't any more fond of the saiyans than they were of him, especially since it was suspected that he'd had more than a small part in Prince Vegeta's 'disappearance,' and there were rumors that some sort of rebellion was forming, but still… "What makes you think he'll strike now?"

Bardock smiled grimly. "Because he's already started. My team got sent on a purge while I was in a regen tank. Except instead of an unsuspecting population, they found Dodoria waiting for them. We were lucky – Toma and Celipa got away and got the word out."

"And the others?" Paragus didn't know Bardock's team – he only knew Bardock because of the man's growing reputation as a warrior – but teams of third class warriors were generally comprised of at least five members.

Bardock's lips thinned. "They fought bravely."

They went on in silence until they reached an out-of-the-way hanger. Bardock led Paragus to an out-dated attack pod and opened the hatch. "The coordinates are already hardwired in – it'll take you somewhere safe." And he finally – _finally_ – handed Paragus his son.

With a trembling hand, Paragus removed the corner of blanket covering the baby's face, half-afraid it would be a mistake, the wrong child. But it wasn't. Broly blinked sleepily up at him, then cuddled back down into his wrappings with a yawn, sucking his thumb.

"Hurry up and get in the pod, time's running out, and I've got a few more things to do before it does."

Paragus blinked, startled to discover he had tears in his eyes. "Why, Bardock? You said you needed Broly, and I can guess your reasons for that, but why me? You could have taken him and run far more easily."

Bardock gave him a tight half-smile. "Rumour has it you're a soft touch, Paragus, and seeing how you reacted to Broly's sentencing, I'd guess they were right. And we're going to need that, too, if we want to have a hope of-" At that moment Bardock's scouter went off and he cursed. "I officially have no more time for you – get in the pod and get out of here! Gods willing, you'll make it to the meet-up." And he left without a backwards glance.

Paragus hesitated only a moment, debating whether or not he could trust the third class warrior. Then Broly squirmed in his arms again and the decision was made. Any chance that his son would survive, even a slim one, was better than none. Stepping into the pod, he shut the hatch and activated the launch sequence. The last thing he saw as the sleeping gas hissed on was Broly's face, already sleeping peacefully.

 **OoOoOoOoOoO**

He awoke to the sound of his pod hissing open, which sent him into a minor panic. The suspended animation systems should have awoken him well before he hit planet-side, and who knew if the local inhabitants were armed-

"Hey, it's Paragus! YO, BARDOCK, YOUR LAME-ASS PLAN WORKED!"

Paragus blinked as Broly stirred in his arms, and several strange but saiyan faces appeared around the entrance to his pod. Before he could get too worried, Bardock appeared, smirking, and offered him a hand up, which he accepted. "Paragus, glad you could make it."

Paragus blinked, noting the red bandana Bardock now sported. In fact, at a glance, everyone seemed to be wearing a scrap of red cloth somewhere – around an arm, a leg, a few even had it looped around their tails. Looking back at Bardock, he found the man was now offering him a similar rectangle of red, grinning.

"Welcome to the resistance, Paragus-

"Paragus-

"PARAGUS!"

Snapping awake with a jolt, Paragus had a ki-blast charged and aimed before he had finished sitting up.

Blinking at him, the ends of his red kerchief knotted loosely on his chest, Tarble was unfazed. "Paragus, we need to find Bardock. Broly's starting his first spurt."

"I might not be." Broly drifted into his father's line of sight behind the official saiyan diplomat and mascot, nee crown prince. "Maybe I've already had it and no one noticed. I'm already almost as tall as you…"

Tarble snorted. "Broly, you just ate a whole day's worth of rations in one sitting. And when you were sparring with Orka this morning your hair _flickered_."

Broly squirmed uncomfortably. "It was a trick of the light – I'd _never_ go super on someone who couldn't handle it!"

"Not on purpose, no," Paragus finally lowered his hand, dismissing the blast, "But if Tarble is right-"

"And I am."

" _If_ Tarble is right," Paragus glared at the teenager, who stared unrepentantly back, arms folded, "Then you're going to be feeling a lot more aggressive for awhile, which means you might power up unintentionally. Which means," he gritted his teeth, "We need to find Bardock."

"I already _said_ that!" Tarble scowled, but stopped when Broly's stomach let out a huge growl. He laughed while Broly turned as red as his sash. "That proves it – not two hours after a meal like that and- sorry, Brol, my days of being second shortest on this ship are numbered. Come on, let's go get you something to eat!"

"Maybe you'll grow a lot with your second spurt," Broly glanced at the older boy hopefully, "Or maybe I won't grow very much."

Tarble snorted. "Brol, I grew about a foot with my first spurt, and you never grow as much with your second. The gods have decreed that I will always be short. You, however, are going to be enormous, I guarantee it."

"But I don't _want_ to be enormous…" Broly whimpered as he trailed after Tarble.

"You don't want to be the Legendary, either, and yet, you are."

Another whimper drifted back as the boys moved out of range, and Paragus chuckled with a sigh. Who would have guessed it – that the super saiyan of legend would manifest in his pacifistic young son. Well, it could be worse – the boy could have suffered some sort of hideous trauma as a baby and turned into a raging lunatic. At least this way they could teach him control and reason, though the rest of the segment of the resistance that lived on this ship maintained that it was the funniest thing in the universe that Broly, who currently had the highest power level on the ship, tended to follow Tarble around like a shadow when the older boy barely had a power level of 530.

The two had latched onto each other when Tarble was four and Broly was still barely a year old and Tarble had been the only one able to calm down a teeny-tiny _teething_ potential super saiyan of legend. Broly had only been able to manifest a small, flickery aura around himself at the time, but that from a baby had been more than enough to thoroughly intimidate most of the saiyans onboard.

Except for Tarble, who would crawl into Broly's make-shift crib with a piece of frozen meat and cuddle with him until the crying stopped.

Pulling on a tunic and shaking his head, Paragus headed for the bridge of the ship, straightening his own red armband as he did so. 'A few more things to do' indeed. Only Bardock would consider kidnapping the sole remaining prince and escaping into space with him while sending the _entire_ royal guard off against Frieza (under the impression that one wasn't enough and the miserable lizard was trying to do away with the remaining heir) a 'few more things to do.'

Probably why the bastard got away with so much, actually…

 **OoOoOoOoOoO**

 _And thus I get around killing off Bardock's entire team and_ _ **still**_ _manage to give him his signature bandana! Woo, go me!_

 _For those wondering about my take on Broly and Paragus: in my opinion, both men have gone quiet insane by the time they show up in the movie. However, from the flashbacks we see, Paragus seems to have genuinely cared about his son, and tried to stop him running wild in other ways before the mind control thing, so I'm going with the concept that originally he was actually a pretty tender-hearted guy, for a saiyan, who ended up as twisted by bad circumstances as his son. In regards to Broly… I liked the concept they were going for, a kid who through some odd circumstances is going to be granted insane levels of power, but I found their execution of it kinda boring. I mean, another power-mad psychopath? Dull. Really scary, but a dull overall concept._

 _So, I'm going with the concept that canon Broly is the way he is due to childhood trauma. This works great, I don't even have to make up anything! I mean, look at what happens to him: at about age one day, he is stabbed in the gut, thrown out like garbage, has the planet explode out from under him, is forced to tap into his latent powers (including the primal rage necessary to make the super saiyan jump, which cannot have been good for a baby's developing brain), and then has to maintain an energy shield while floating through space with his dad hanging off his arm until they crashed into a planet somewhere after who knows how long. And all this on not nearly enough sleep! Crap like that's gonna leave a mark, just saying._

 _Now, none of that happened in this universe (except the sleep thing, but he got to take a nice long nap in the attack pod with his dad, so that helped), so this Broly's grown up very different. He seemed like he would have been a pretty sweet baby, even crying pretty quietly, so he's very quiet, kinda shy, and would honestly be happier if someone else was the Legendary Super Saiyan. And, like Paragus says, he's a bit of a pacifist. Now, I know this sort of thing has been done to death as well, if not with Broly than with other characters, but it gives me more to work with, and is something we don't actually see much in DBZ, if at all (not sure if Gohan counts here). Plus, I'm with the saiyans on this one – I find this version of Broly hilarious! Also adorable._

 _Tarble's also pretty different from his canon counterpart. I was unable to locate a power level for him, but he's supposed to be fairly weak, so that's how I'm making him. He's probably not this weak in canon, but whatever, he makes up for it in other ways. For example, he's a lot spunkier than his canon self – growing up among saiyans in an active rebellion'll do that to a guy. He's also pretty fearless, in spite of his low power level, because the saiyans tend to look out for him – he's the only prince they have left – and, even after that, he hangs out with Broly. Ain't nuthin' touching him! He may come off as sassy here, but Tarble has been raised not as a warrior, but as a diplomat, so he's perfectly capable of being formal and polite when he chooses to be. His lower power level is actually an advantage to him in this venue because it makes him less threatening. He's a very smart kid and is very skilled at politics._

Orka: okra

Broly

Age: 15

Height: 4'0"

Tarble

Age: 17

Height: 4'2"


End file.
